WINSTED >> Finance Director Robin Manuele resigned Wednesday, effective immediately, one year into her tenure. Manuele was just the second finance director in Winchester’s history. She took office in March 2013, replacing Henry Centrella, the now disgraced Winsted native who pleaded guilty in January to stealing upwards of $2 million from town coffers.

Manuele said via email Wednesday night that she is returning to her former position with the City of Bristol. She was the assistant comptroller there from June 2002 to March 2013. Manuele declined to comment on her reason for stepping down. Manuele had yet to submit a letter of resignation to the town as of Wednesday night. She did not specify when her last day with the town would be.

In the wake of Centrella’s theft, Manuele created a list of safeguards and procedural changes for the town’s accounting to prevent a similar crime from occurring in the future. With the help of Town Manager Dale Martin, Manuele implemented 15 or so safeguards, most of which had to do with preventing misusage of software mishandling of cash, or unilateral control, all of which were practices that were allegedly manipulated by Centrella.

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Based on the list of changes that Manuele made, comparing the way her office worked to that of Centrella was night and day. Without a series of checks and balances or segregation of duties, Centrella was allowed to run amok. Centrella had deposits from the tax office delivered to his office, where he would stay late into the night, according to his arrest warrant, and prepare the deposits for Mark Douglass, the town’s purchasing agent, to bring to the bank.

Under Manuele, departmental deposits were brought to the finance office with a detailed spreadsheet identifying the accounts that they were to be posted to. A member of the accounting staff would have to sign off on the amount and present it for deposit, comparing it to what is on the spreadsheet before placing the deposit into a sealed bag.

There were sealed bags under Centrella. They all just happened to end up on his doorstep.

Town bills would go directly to Centrella as well, Martin said in October, though the finance director would in many cases throw those bills away.

New software called Positive Pay, via Bank of America, was installed during Manuele’s tenure, causing the town to have to provide and file to the bank for both accounts payable and payroll checks.

“People see the value of these improvements,” Manuele told the Register Citizen last October. “They see that we’re doing the right thing and this is what needs to be done.”

Mayor Lisa Smith commented on the job that Manuele did.

“I would like to thank Robin for her professionalism, her distinguished work ethic, commitment to a job that was above and beyond what she most likely could have ever expected,” Smith said. “Personally, I wish Robin the best of luck in all of her future endeavors. It was a pleasure to have worked with someone with such integrity and dedication.”

Manuele got her start in Bristol, working as an auditor for Scully & Wolf, a Glastonbury-based auditing firm that handled Bristol’s audits. She ascended to the position of assistant comptroller in Bristol in 2002, where she’d work for nine years before landing the job of finance director in Winchester.